Heart of Missouri United Way Falls Short of Fundraising Goal

COLUMBIA - The Heart of Missouri United Way said Friday it missed its fund-raising goal for the 2013 budget year of $4 million by more than half a million dollars. The United Way's $3.4 million raised represents 85 percent of its goal.

Despite not meeting the goal, executive director of Heart of Missouri United Way, Tim Rich, said he is very pleased with the fund-raising campaign results. He said the amount raised is a success due to the tough economy and that most fund-raising campaigns expect to miss their goal amount by 15 to 25 percent when transitioning to a new business model.

The United Way has transitioned to a new business model over the past three years called community impact. The community impact model seeks to increase the impact of individual donations. The model also tries to lift people out of poverty instead of just supporting people in poverty.

Said Rich, "We are thrilled with the results of our campaign, the typical track that United Way is on when they move to community impact is they lose anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of their funding from their donors in the first few years because its a different type of business model."

Rich said the non-profit social service organizations that the United Way supports will not see cuts in funds, and the United Way will tap into three-month financial reserves to make up the unraised funds.

"Our community impact volunteers are so committed to this work and so believe in the agencies that we've funded that they said no we will fund it full dollar these agencies and we will either raise more money or we'll use reserve funds to bridge the gap and I think that speaks to the commitment of our local community volunteers to make real change happen."

This year the agency received 109 funding requests totaling $6.2 million, the most it has ever had. It whittled the number down to $3.8 million and based its four million goal off that number.